Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2016

Lynplatinum

Evening all

Welcome Allthatglitter and cuddlymarm! This thread (and last year's one were life savers for me! Folks on here v friendly and helpful!)

Hiya Hester - nice to hear from you again!

Well - such a productive day - walked to the car boot - where the veg man let me buy one orange (have new cake recipe to try out - will post it should it turn out OK) but did not buy anything else!!

Then walked on to the Fun Day happening in the park. Met two lovely ladies who were entering their dogs in the dog show - the dogs were called Murphy and Molly and they suggested another fair for next Saturday where they would be - so seem to have made two friends who are dog mad which is great!

then came home and
Made do: lunch from salad bits and some lovely goats cheese
Minimise: Spent most of the evening in the adverts during Midsummer murders shredding paperwork!! :j
Mend: now this is where Im proud of meself! Havent done much of this but today I sanded down an old 1m x 1/2m bookcase which I moved with me but had been languishing in my shed for years holding paint pots etc. I then painted it using a sample pot a friend had been going to throw out! So far it looks quite good - cant wait till tomorrow to see how it looks when dry! This will save me buying a bookcase for my new house (previous house had bookshelves built in!)
Feeling v smug and quite proud of myself!! I had been meaning to revamp said book case for years ! :rotfl:
Nite all

Dizzy_Imp

*Slides in like I've always been here....:whistle: Well, I have, just lurking...

I love this thread. You lot are so creative and ingenious and I love the MMM way. I'm in properly, if you'll have me?

[Deleted User]

Welcome Dizzy Imp you will enjoy it here .
Lynplatinum you've done it now once you start upcycling stuff you will be on the lookout for other things to renew.Its a fascinating hobby especially if you can find odds and ends at a boot sale I did a lovely Lloyd loom bedroom chair for my DD that someone had dumped after the boot sale had finished ,couldn't be bothered to take it home I guess.I scrubbed it down and they spray painted it in a silvery grey colour and took the seat out and the cover off and renewed the cover with some material I cut out from a 50p dress from a C/S.Result was a lovely wicker chair for Dds bedroom which she was delighted with I cost me a couple of quid for the paint and 50p for the cover and a bit of elbow grease and time Its my favourite winter pastime as I have a small conservatory where I can rub/sand things down and undercoat then usually two top coats on all sorts of stuff I can do a coat of paint and leave it for a week to really dry off and being in the conservatory its only me that goes in there so its fine.At the moment I have a wooden mirror to sand down and re-do and that will be my 'after -I-come-home-from-my-holidays' project once done in liverpool red and white stripes it will go in my DGS Mikeys bedroom to match the red and white checked blanket I knitted him last year.The mirror cost me 80p at a boot sale and again very little to paint and re-do up apart from time and effort.I love renovating old stuff its so satifying and it means its not going to end up in landfill. Great fun to see something new emerge from what was basically junk.Lots of free books from the library will give you plenty of ideas I often don't specifically buy undercoat for renovating wood I will use old emulsion as a base instead .

JackieO xx

silvasava

Jackie - so with you on upcycling . It's SO satisfying! I needed two bedside cabinets & baulked at the price new. Our bedroom has a s!lightly oriental slant. I found two beautiful 4 drawer Stag cabinets in need of TLC. DH sanded them & sprayed them satin black for me and I replaced the knobs with some chrome pendant ones. They look stunning (and expensive!) They are so beautifully made they needed to be saved. I've also refurbished a couple of Lloyd loom items. I've also got a daybed with a deep buttoned rolled end that I paid £6 for but I did get that professionally recovered! I find match pots are good for small items too.
A number of small jobs to be minimised today. Phone calls to get gas boiler serviced, DH insurance co and take puss to vets for annual jab. ( She'll be in a sulk for the rest of the day) and get my brain in gear to do a meal plan of some sort for the week.
Have a good day all x

misstara

Afternoon MMMers

Took another 2 bags of stuff to the CS from the old flat and chucked out a black bag too. Just need to do the last bits of cleaning and that will be it.

Did all my washing and ironing last night, got a new iron a few weeks ago and love it other iron had to go in the bin as the wiring was frayed.

Hard_Up_Hester

Someone just knocked on my door to ask if they could take some of the items on the drive, I told him to help himself and gave him a few more bits as well, definitely better than going to landfill.

Dizzy_Imp

Afternoon everyone :wave:

I've had a bit of an odd day but seem to have made some progress, although there is still so much to do.

I mended two Kilner bottle clasps that had become bent out of shape and attached them to the glass bottles, making them useable again. Getting ready to bottle up all my fruit liqueur concoctions, for Crimble pressies (if any of it lasts that long!)

We are making do with frozen prawns for dinner, which I shall conjure into a magnificent meal for us tonight. They were on special offer, so a great price, thus making our dinner frugal too Wish me luck.

I have minimised a huge pile of cardboard and paper items into sizes small enough to fit into our recycling box and stewed and packed down 10 kilos of plums for the freezer.

savingpennies

cuddlymarm wrote: »

Hi all
I hope you don't mind me joining in. OH has just taken early retirement so we are at the next bit of life's adventure.
We aim to travel and enjoy the sun as much as possible while managing on as little as possible.
The first step is to move back up north which we are doing in the autumn but as we have a lovely little villa in Florida aim to get as much use out of it until we can't afford or don't want to keep it, are going out in Sept to have a frugal holiday/ decorate. Then we have a week to pack up ready to move.
So I need to run things down and only buy what we really need.

So today is
Make - Roast turkey leg with potatoes, green beans and gravy. ( I'm using up what's floating round in the freezer rather than doing my usual weekly shop) also I plan on doing some little cakes at the same time.
Mend - not sure yet
Minimise - go through a cupboard, pack and get rid of stuff never going to be used again. Probably not much because OH got the urge to minimise a couple of weeks ago so loads went to the charity shop then.

This is quite a learning curve because although we have enough to live comfortably this will only be if we think before we spend. We can't just pop whatever we fancy on the credit card any more and the bank of mum and dad is definately closed. This has come a few years sooner than expected due to OHs ill health so is quite scary, but with your guys support I know we do ok.

Cuddles

Welcome Cuddlymarm. We were in a similar situation five years ago. The company my OH worked for was contracted to run a distribution centre for a well known DIY store, which went into administration. He was offered another job but it was down south and we live NW. He turned it down and took redundancy thinking he would find something else - he didn't. It was certainly a shock. Thankfully I was working and we eked out his redundancy pay until he decided to retire early last year at 60. I too, have just recently retired earlier than I had planned partly because of ill-health.
It's amazing how you can manage on less if you both work together on the task. We looked at all our outgoings and thought about whether we could reduce the cost or cut it out. Suddenly all those 'essentials' we used to fork out for seemed much less important.
I can't say that we have drastically changed our lifestyle just adjusted it - having only one car, taking a picnic or nipping into Boots for a meal deal instead of going into a cafe, looking for the cheapest cinema tickets, searching for YS items for the freezer, using the library, that sort of thing.
Being on here certainly helps: everyone is supportive and offers advice and tips.

chickadee

I'm a lurker too, deciding to make more of a contribution to the thread. Apologies if it is short-lived! I have this and just a few other threads bookmarked and read regularly. This one is such a friendly thread, with people really supportive of others and their efforts to keep their spend low.

Today I brought my lunch to work (regular thing) but brought the last slice of cheesecake that needed eating up instead of a piece of cake. I usually check my bank account at lunchtime so I have done that and updated my spreadsheet.

I have only just got into charity shopping recently. I don't know why it took me so long! I have had some really lovely bargains and I think I'm becoming a charity shop bore. If I get a complement, I say the make and price I paid for it. I get a real thrill from getting really high quality items for just a few pounds. I really begrudge paying a lot of money for clothes.

I need to shorten a pair of linen trousers I bought recently. They are from the White Company so will have cost £££ new but they need shortening a bit so I'll have a look at that tonight if I have time. Fortunately I'm quite handy with a sewing machine so that comes in very useful.

I've also started selling on ebay again. Back in the day, it was such a faff to list things but thankfully the process is now much quicker and easier. I have a target of £40 of goods per month and I know what my August items will be. July's sales were unused skincare items and cosmetics which were just sitting doing nothing and not being used.

Love the inspiration from here and the general chatter, a real virtual community.

[Deleted User]

Its great to 'see' new folk joining and I agree we are quite a matey bunch. We all have more of less the same ideals and goals ,mainly to make the most of what we have, and enjoying it, without forking out buckets of dosh

I enjoy up-cycling old furniture and bits and bobs, and repairing and re-using rather than binning stuff. My family always say 'give it to Mum she'll find a home for it' ,and 9/10 times I do.

Failing that there is always a C/S and landfill is a last resort for me . Today one of my DGS Henry was complaining that he couldn't plug in his gadget/game console near to his side of the bedroom.(he is having to share with his next brother up Jack, whilst his eldest brother Ben is home from Uni) Magic Gran said 'Not a problem I have a spare extention lead you can borrow for awhile' result one happy young man, and trouble averted.:)
No dinner to cook tonight as its quiz night at the pub, and I get a meal along with the quiz.

So just pottering around and keeping the boys amused. Tomorrow its all systems go as it will be packing for the holidays :):)